Authors note: Hey again! Hope you enjoy this new chapter, I promised to keep it interesting didn't I!? Now if you aren't a fan of the reboot, like I know many people aren't, now's your chance to make it seem a little more enjoyable. Hope you all like how I've merged the two, if anybody is interested in the back story to this chapter, say so in a review and I can write up a full version! Enjoy!

The shop came back to life the next morning as the tune of the banged up jukebox began to play. Dante was fresh out of the shower with a towel wrapped loosely around his hips. He walked across the hallway into his bedroom where Nero was still fast asleep after the hard night before. At the sight of the younger male in his bed Dante completely forgot about the clothes he came in to collect, sitting beside the boy on the toughened mattress and watching him quietly. Dante tried to let it sink in for a while, it was amazing how suddenly everything could change. His hand reached out and dragged the duvet down to expose Nero's bandaged wound so he could investigate it. Luckily the bleeding had ceased throughout the night, Dante being satisfied enough with the recovery to cover his son back up and allow him to stay warm.

Once Dante remembered what he was doing and started to get dressed, Nero began to stir. He peeked an icy blue eye open ever so slightly, focusing on the other white haired man who stood buckling his belt by the tattered wooden dresser. The sound of the duvet rustling alerted Dante who turned around to look at the bed once he'd zipped his leather trousers up. As he turned around, Nero was focused on his shirtless torso and back, not a scar to show from the looks of things. Not something you would expect for a man who built a career around violence and brutality.

"Awake already huh? When I was your age I never saw this side of sunrise." Dante lightly scoffed in his usual nonchalant manner and sat beside him on the bed, his chest still bare of clothes as he failed to find a shirt worthy of wear. In reply, Nero smirked and rubbed his face, pulling himself up onto the pillow more, carefully elevating his back to avoid further injury.

"You get used to it where I come from." The young man shrugged and looked up at his antecedent who nodded and furthered his questioning. "How's your back?" This man before him had taken on far more horrific injuries, and here he was asking Nero if a 'silly little flesh wound' was alright, if he was with his foster family he would be mocked for being weak. And Dante was the one who wasn't human? Huh. Once Nero adjusted to the irony of him asking that question, he replied with a smile, "Its fine, thanks to you and those girls."

"Least we could do." He patted the younger mans shoulder. "Blonde's Trish, scary one's Lady." He chuckled to himself a bit as he earned himself a scowl from Lady as she walked past the door. A grin crawled onto Nero's face as the older man laid down beside him, resting his head on his hands. Nero examined the man beside him, gazing down his chest where under his amulet were a handful of small scars in a bizarre formation.

The elder cambion noticed Nero quietly glancing at the marks beneath the metal chain that otherwise managed to disguise them very well. He smiled softly in remembrance of where the scars came from. "That was a loooong time ago." Dante smiled, answering Nero's question before he'd even asked it. Nero blushed as he didn't realise that what he was thinking was so obvious. He swallowed awkwardly and decided he wanted to find out more.

"So... How'd you get those scars huh..?" Nero was treading on eggshells as he didn't know what to expect, especially to leave the seemingly invincible half demon scarred. Dante drew in a breath and smirked, huffing out one word, "Mundus." The older man rubbed his face and smiled at his descendant. "The demon king who killed my mother, who wanted to tear me apart the same way." Nero felt his stomach sink, wishing he hadn't asked. Looked like the old man had more to him than he first thought. "I'm sorry." Nero swallowed, Dante dismissing the apology immediately.

"Don't be, I made him pay." The hybrid spoke proudly of the demons defeat, yet the sting of the loss and betrayal still burned deep in his mind from those years. The loss of his brother was as painful now as it was all those years ago. Nero smiled and looked up at the older mans face, watching as he turned to face a photo frame on top of the desk which mounted a tattered, worn newspaper cutting of a young black haired rebel and a hooded woman, stood among the rubble of a broken building. This seemed all a bit odd considering Dante wasn't even in the photo.

The hunter stood up and grabbed the frame before returning to his position beside Nero on the bed. He forced a smile onto his stubble covered face, his half-lidded eyes staring dreamily at the image of the young man leading the girl to safety. Memories of sounds, noises and blurred visions came flooding back to Dante as he watched the static image before him. The age of the printed photograph showed with the wear and tear, making it clear to Nero that he must have carried it for a long time, it was obviously very dear to his heart.

"Who are they? Old friends...?" Nero shifted closer, almost close enough to rest his head on the older man, but he refrained and kept a comfortable distance. Dante let out a small chuckle under his breath.

"You're right next to one of them, kid."

There was a proud and underlying sad tone of nostalgia in his voice. The younger man could barely believe it. He was supposed to believe this scruffy stray was the skilled, quick witted and seasoned hunter he was laying next to right now? No way. He scowled a little to pick out defining features, if there were any. Even with the black and white photograph, and worn paper, he couldn't mistake those eyes. One thing he could see that hadn't changed. They had a sharpness to them, but beneath the reflective colour was a sense of humanity, softness, almost like he was hiding behind an exoskeleton to shield himself from the world that clearly didn't seem to have a place for him.

"A-and the girl...?" Nero expanded his question. There was a cold pause.

"That's Kat." Dante spoke that name warmly and stroked the glass with his thumb. "She was the only one for me. I'm sure of it." Nero detected a small croak of pain in the older mans voice, not sure if he wanted to dig any deeper into Dante's wounds. Just from the way he spoke her name he could tell she was clearly important to him.

Dante huffed and handed his son the precious frame so he could look closer. Up close he could notice the small details like the bullets ricocheting off the buckled concrete around the pair, and the young woman's battle wounds. Under the photo was a printed caption; "Rebel survivors from The Order escape justice". Nero looked back at Dante and asked, "What happened?" That was a hard question for Dante to answer, but he'd got this far with it. Dante stared down at his amulet almost for guidance as he thought of what to say.

"...We defeated Mundus. Me, my brother, and her. Before my brother slipped away." He spoke surprisingly briefly of Vergil. "He left me and Kat to rebuild a new life, after we flipped everything upside down." He gave a bitter sweet smile, reminiscing about the tiny, dirty apartment he and Kat rented together. How ironic and cruel it was. They had risked their lives for the sake of mankind, and they repay them with shunning them to the furthest corner.

"We were okay for a while... Before I made a stupid mistake..." He gritted his teeth. "A stupid mistake only a kid could make." He shook his head and huffed before continuing with his explanation. "We got together... And the chances of a human conceiving a hybrid child were so small I didn't even think about it as a possibility..." Dante's lip quivered ever so slightly. "...But she did."

Nero frowned and stared at his ancestor, awaiting the rest of the story. "And trust me. Human women aren't built to carry monsters..." He could feel a physical ache within himself as he uttered those words. "She tried and tried, all she could. All she wanted was to keep it, but her body tried to destroy her from the inside out..." He drew in a deep, shaky breath before finishing. "She jumped off the pier. The last I saw or heard from her..." He leaned his head back as pools of tears welled in his eyes. He stared at the ceiling in silence, trying not to get too choked up.

Goosebumps started to cover Nero's skin as the atmosphere and temperature dropped in the room. He would have never thought he would be into girls like her, especially in the company of his female partners, Trish and Lady. It was bizarre to know that deep down Dante had more to him than met the eye. It was haunting to think he could have potentially had a half brother too. He shook away his own thoughts for a while and hugged the older man, able to feel his heart ache in the tenseness of his chest.

"Dante... I had no idea..." He spoke quietly, just voicing his understanding for the unfortunate man. The two women leaned silently at the door, looking surprised at the story themselves. Looked like this was the first time Dante had ever opened up about his past to anyone like that. Even though it was a miserable experience, it brought them closer in a way. It brought Nero comfort to know he wasn't the only one with a broken past. At least they had each other to see it through.